FINAL

Heat-Celtics Preview

By JIMMY GOLENPosted May 08 2011 6:50PM

WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers did his best to stay out of the trainer's room on Sunday, lest he learn something about one of his injured players that he didn't want to hear.

"It's a pretty busy room right now," he said on Sunday, a day after the Celtics earned a bruising 97-81 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals despite injuries to point guards Rajon Rondo and Delonte West. "Right now, we're going to go with, 'They're all playing."'

Rondo dislocated his left elbow in the third quarter on Saturday night when he got tangled up with Miami guard Dwyane Wade and got thrown to the floor. He had an MRI and CAT scan at New England Baptist Hospital on Sunday, and both tests came out negative, Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss said.

West, who had a bruised left shoulder, was feeling better on Sunday and did not go to the hospital for tests, Twiss said. Rivers said he would likely decide just before gametime - or later - whether Rondo will play.

"I'm optimistic about both, that they're going to play. I don't know why I am, but I am," Rivers said, adding that he has tried to avoid watching the video of Rondo's arm being bent into an unnatural position when he was thrown to the floor by Wade. "I just don't know how well either one can play."

The Celtics returned to Boston after losing the first two games in Miami and showed the fight that had been lacking when they fell behind 0-2. Kevin Garnett scored 28 points with 18 rebounds - more than he had in the first two games combined - and Paul Pierce added 27 points for the defending Eastern Conference champions.

Game 4 is Monday night, and the Celtics are hoping to tie the series before it shifts back to Miami.

To do that, they'll need Rondo.

The youngest - by far - of Boston's four All-Stars, Rondo was injured early in the second half when he was fouled by Wade. Doctors popped his elbow back into place in the locker room and he was back on the court at the start of the fourth quarter, dribbling, passing and shooting with his right arm while leaving his left dangling at his side.

"All of us sort of looked at each other like, 'What is he doing out here?"' Garnett said. "He's showing a lot of heart (and) a lot of grit. We see it. That doesn't go unspoken or unseen. We see he's out there giving his full effort. We're following that lead."

Rondo finished with 11 assists and six points, including a pair of one-armed baskets in the fourth quarter that the Celtics called the spark they had been lacking.

"Listen," Rivers said with a laugh, "I played with one hand my entire career. So you can do it. And he did it.

"Players play. We can all tell our war stories. But very few could do that - especially in this situation. They try, but very few could succeed. Yesterday was just another example of an NBA player not caring about his health and trying to help the team."

Rondo was not available for comment on Sunday, but he said after the game that he was not concerned. Rivers said he was laying on the trainer's table, with his elbow wrapped in ice, "half-asleep" from painkillers. Both teams described the play as a hard foul, and neither felt that Wade was trying to injure Rondo with the takedown.

"He's about as tough a guy as you'll come across in this league," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "I wasn't even surprised that he came back. He's that type of competitor. You don't like to see anybody injured at this time of year, even your opponent. We want to beat Boston when they're at their best and their healthiest."

Wade didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm not answering questions about that. I'm done with that. I'm moving on," he said. "Ain't nobody fighting, this is basketball. Keep them back from what? They going to beat me up? Did everybody watch the replay? All right.

"I'm done. I've moved on from that."

Rondo and West aren't Boston's only injuries. Center Shaquille O'Neal was also dealing with swelling in his right calf after playing 8 minutes, 29 seconds - his first appearance of the playoffs and just his second since Feb. 1. "I think he's going to have that for the rest of the year," Rivers said.

And the Heat have injury problems of their own. Chris Bosh woke up with a pinched nerve in his neck, though he said it was no excuse for his performance in the game; he scored six points with five rebounds in 30 minutes.

"The way we've been successful all year is by executing our offense, and a lot of that offense runs through Chris," Spoelstra said. "We have to help him as well."

Udonis Haslem still is not ready to return from November foot surgery. And there are more than a few bruised egos on the Miami said.

LeBron James scored 15 points on 6-for-16 shooting, adding seven rebounds and four assists for his worst playoff performance in more than three years. Combined, Miami's Big Three had a total of 44 points - the fewest since they joined together amid much hoopla during the offseason.

The answer, James said, could be even more physical play of the type that filled the Celtics training room.

"We've got to be aggressive. They're a very aggressive team. The only way you counter aggressiveness is to be aggressive on the other end, too," he said "We know we didn't play as well as we wanted to - probably our worst game of the postseason. We're looking to get better in Game 4."

Copyright 2011 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

James, Wade lead Heat past Celtics 98-90 in OT

By JIMMY GOLENPosted May 10 2011 4:24AM

BOSTON (AP) LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are on the verge of doing something together that neither of them could accomplish on his own.

Miami's Big Three combined for 83 points as the Heat beat Boston 98-90 in overtime on Monday night to move within one game of the Eastern Conference finals. James scored 35, Wade had 28 and the threesome also combined for 35 of Miami's 45 rebounds.

"We're the guys. We're the ones who get all the attention. We're the ones that get all the praise," Wade said. "This team is going to go as far as us three takes it."

One game after their worst performance as a threesome, James, Wade and Bosh had one of their best. They scored all 12 of Miami's points in overtime; Bosh and Wade had five apiece after James' fallaway jumper on the Heat's first possession of the extra period gave them the lead for good.

The Heat lead the best-of-seven East semifinals 3-1, with a chance to close out the series in Miami on Wednesday.

"Wednesday night will be our greatest challenge that we've had with this group so far," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We'll get their best games on Wednesday. And we have to be better. If we're real about what we want to do, we have to beat the Boston Celtics at their best."

Paul Pierce scored 27, Ray Allen had 17 and Kevin Garnett had seven points and 10 rebounds for Boston. Rajon Rondo, who dislocated his left elbow Saturday night in Game 3, played 39 minutes with a padded sleeve covering what appeared to be a brace on his left arm, scoring 10 with five assists.

The Celtics would need to win three in a row - two of them in Miami - to have a chance to defend their Eastern Conference championship.

"These are those moments. I look forward to it," Allen said. "Everybody on this team, we know what to do. We can't talk about it; we just have to put our best foot forward. It's not easy. It just makes it that much more special if we're able to do it."

Boston has reached the NBA finals in two of the last three seasons, both times knocking James and the Cavaliers out along the way. The Celtics eliminated the Heat in the first round last year, one round after knocking Cleveland out and sending James on the journey that landed him in Miami.

In all, Wade had lost 11 straight regular-season and playoff games in Boston. James had lost 13 of 15, including the one that ended his Cleveland career.

"I haven't had much success in this building," James said. "We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to just come out and do whatever it took."

Boston took an 84-81 lead with 2:28 left after back-to-back 3-pointers by Delonte West and Allen, but James hit a 3 to tie it and then made a left-handed lay-in with 48 seconds to play to give Miami an 86-84 lead. Pierce drove to the basket to tie it, but James lost control of the ball while he was dribbling down the clock.

Allen went for it and was bumped by James Jones, giving Boston the ball out of bounds with 19.5 seconds left and the game tied at 86. Pierce got the ball, waited out the clock and then took a high-arcing fallaway jumper in the final seconds that rimmed out as time expired.

The Celtics scored just four points in overtime, shooting 1 for 6 and making four of their 18 turnovers. Garnett started things off by throwing the ball away, and then James made a fallaway jumper as the shot clock expired to give Miami an 88-86 lead.

Allen missed, Bosh dunked at the other end, West missed a 3-pointer and then James drew a charging foul on Pierce. After another Boston turnover, Wade made a 2-pointer with his foot on the 3-point arc to give Miami a 92-86 lead with 2 minutes left in overtime.

"We just had poor execution down the stretch," Pierce said. "It just carried into overtime, it seemed like. We feel like tonight we beat ourselves."

One game after the Heat's Big Three combined for just 44 points, they provided almost all the offense. No one else had more than four points, and the Heat's bench totaled just seven.

The 83 total points is tied for ninth-most by the Big Three, and their 84.7 percent of total team points is the second-highest percentage of the season, according to STATS LLC.

NOTES: Miami had zero assists in the second quarter, and just eight through three. ... Boston activated point guard Carlos Arroyo in case Rondo's elbow and West's shoulder became a problem. He did not get into the game. ... Jermaine O'Neal was called for a flagrant foul on James in the first five minutes, perhaps an attempt by the officials to make sure things didn't get nasty after Saturday night's takedown in which Rondo was injured. ... Spoelstra shuffled his lineup, activating Udonis Haslem for the first time since November foot surgery and rewarding Joel Anthony for his play in the early games with his first start of the playoffs. Haslem made just one appearance, playing 3 minutes and picking up an offensive foul, a loose-ball foul and a technical foul.

Copyright 2011 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited